How collaboration technology is shaping the client experience · 2020-04-02 · How collaboration...
Transcript of How collaboration technology is shaping the client experience · 2020-04-02 · How collaboration...
How collaboration technology is shaping the client experienceProfessional services & accountancy analysis
THIS DOCUMENT AND THE INFORMATION IN IT ARE PROVIDED IN CONFIDENCE, AND MAY NOT BE DISCLOSED TO ANY THIRD PART Y OR USED FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE WITHOUT THE E XPRESS WRIT TEN PERMISSION OF HUDDLE. © Huddle June 20162
How collaboration technology is shaping the client experience: Professional services & accountancy analysis
Contents1 Executive Summary 3
2 Winning Business 4
3 Servicing Clients 8
4 Retaining Business 14
5 The Future 17
6 Key Learnings 18
7 Appendix 19
3
How collaboration technology is shaping the client experience: Professional services & accountancy analysis
1. Executive Summary
While expertise and efficiency appear to be two distinct goals,
they fundamentally rely on the same single capability;
effective collaboration.
Many professional services firms will read this and feel they
have already ticked off their collaboration objectives. They
may have implemented internal file-sharing systems,
document workflows and perhaps even client portals.
The problem that this research has discovered is that in the
vast majority of cases, teams find their current collaboration
set-ups to be so restrictive, unintuitive or simply not fit-for-
purpose that they are actively circumventing them. On the
face of it, this appears to be a case of wasted investment,
perhaps solved by internal education. However, the impact
is actually further reaching; deviating from defined
workflows creates an instant lack of transparency,
auditability and in many cases, IT security.
More worryingly, the research indicates that many of these
impacts then manifest as reasons for actually losing clients.
Whole accounts can be lost through a lack of transparency,
missed deadlines, poor account management and an inability
to demonstrate expertise.
Suddenly, successful collaboration moves from being a way
of making a business run smoothly, to being an indisputable
necessity for winning and retaining business.
This Huddle research paper examines the impact that
technology has on the lifecycle of a professional services client,
from the initial win, through servicing and even loss. To what
extent is collaboration technology assisting or undermining
the client experience? How can the right technology make the
pursuit of new business more efficient and successful? And
ultimately, how can collaboration technology help businesses
generate more revenue and grow?
Finally, we examine the longer-term strategic objectives of
the professional services sector, and show how these too can
be supported by the same technology mindset.
The findings of the research are clear and boil down to a simple
point; professional services firms have to date done the right
thing in trying to improve their collaboration capabilities.
They have identified its importance and have invested in
technology and training. However, any deployed solution must
meet the needs of multiple stakeholders; from business users
who demand usability and accessibility, to clients who expect
transparency, and IT who expect robust security and data
governance. In many cases, the research suggests that firms
have failed to find this balance and have created new, and
often unforeseen, problems as a result.
This was an independent market research project conducted
in Q2 2016 by Opinionography on behalf of Huddle. It should be
noted that in the context of this report, “professional services”
includes Accounting, Advisory and Management Consulting
firms. Full research methodology can be found in the appendix.
The success of any professional services organization hinges on two factors – expertise and efficiency.
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How collaboration technology is shaping the client experience: Professional services & accountancy analysis
2. Winning Business
Across professional services firms, the primary key to
winning new business is the ability to demonstrate
expertise – with management consultants and
advisory professionals considering it absolutely
critical to success.
Meanwhile, accounting professionals rank this of almost
equal importance with competitive fees and the ability
to offer wider services. And while transparency and data
security are not ranked as most important, neither
should be considered immaterial. Enterprise CIOs, for
example, are being made painfully aware of the need to
secure the organization’s data and processes. In theory
therefore, these factors for winning business should be
considered “table stakes”.
Firms have been quick to recognize that demonstrating
organizational expertise and service breadth is key to
differentiation. It stands to reason, therefore, that an ability
to collaborate and share knowledge internally is of critical
importance not only to winning business, but retaining it.
Key factors in winning new business(Respondents asked to selected top three)
How are firms positioning themselves during new business pursuits?
Being able to demonstrate expertise
AllAccountancy FirmsManagement Consultancies
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
62%
53%
70%
Competitive fees
52%
50%
54%
Ability to offer wider services
49%
50%
47%
Being able to demonstrate transparency
42%
47%
37%
Being able to demonstrate data security credentials
40%
45%
35%
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How collaboration technology is shaping the client experience: Professional services & accountancy analysis
Pursuing new business can be a costly process for professional services firms. The research discovered that a typical new business
bid today involves an average of seven people with each senior member of the team dedicating, on average, 12 hours.
This equates to an average of 84 hours of senior management time being dedicated to each bid, and with the average
personal hourly rate of $296, a typical bid consumes $24,864 of otherwise billable time.
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%3% 3%
Just me
4%
44%
36%
2-5
52%
36%42%
6-10
31%
12%16%
11-15
9%4% 4%
16+
4%
All Accountancy Firms Management Consultancies
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%3% 3%
Just me
4%
44%
36%
2-5
52%
36%42%
6-10
31%
12%16%
11-15
9%4% 4%
16+
4%
All Accountancy Firms Management Consultancies
30%
20%
10%
0%
1-2 3-5 6-10 11-15 21-2516-20 26-30 31+
5% 6% 5%
17%12%
21% 23% 22% 24% 23% 24% 21%
8% 6%11%
17%22%
12%
2%4%
0%5% 4%
6%
How many hours do you typically spend on a new business bid? Mean: 12 hours
Number of people involved in a new business bid. Mean: 7 people
All
Accountancy Firms
Management Consultancies
How can the cost and time demands of pursuing new business be reduced?
U.S UK Global Avg (mean)
Average hourly rate $265 £204 $296
Average hours per bid 8 13 12
Average bid team size 7 7 7
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How collaboration technology is shaping the client experience: Professional services & accountancy analysis
What could help reduce the hours spent on a typical new business pursuit? (Respondents asked to selected top three)
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Easier collection of information from
across the business
Clearerapproval process
Clearer document workflows
Greater control over versions of
the same document
Clearer task-setting
process
Better access to
subject matter experts’ input
Removing duplication
of effort
Clearer project
mangement
33% 33%34%
32% 31%33%
30% 29%31%
29%
25%
32%
28% 28% 27%28%
33%
23%
27% 28%26% 26%
31%
20%
Other
1%0%
3%
Unsurprisingly, professional services firms all want to improve
efficiency (and remove cost) in this process, with 33% identifying
that an improvement in how information is collected from across
the business could reduce the time burden
To meet their need for demonstrating expertise and service
breadth when pursuing new business, accountancy firms in
particular are keen to improve access to subject matter experts’
input and collect information from across the business.
Meanwhile, management consultancy and advisory
professionals have more process-orientated concerns,
with document approvals, workflows and version control
all ranking amongst the highest.
Managing organizational knowledge
Management of organizational knowledge has become a key
topic across the professional services sector. As organizations
grow, their ability to mange knowledge becomes harder and
information and expertise risks being siloed across the
business, or lost altogether.
There is clearly an urgent need for improved document
management and information sharing across the entirety of the
industry. The precise needs and opportunities for improvement
may differ between accountancy firms, management
consultancies and advisory professionals, but the solution is
the same for all; prudent selection of collaboration platforms
to mobilize organizational knowledge.
Without this, work documents (and the associated intelligence)
risk being trapped. 38% of respondents admitted to storing the
majority of their work documents on their local computer hard
drive. A further 23% routinely kept documents as attachments
in their email client and 27% in a personal cloud file sharing
service. 27% also admitted to regularly storing work on
unsecured USB thumb drives. In each of these scenarios, the
ability for the wider business to benefit from these documents
has been restricted. Worse still, when these individuals leave
an organization, this data leaves with them, or is deleted along
with their email accounts.
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%3% 3%
Just me
4%
44%
36%
2-5
52%
36%42%
6-10
31%
12%16%
11-15
9%4% 4%
16+
4%
All Accountancy Firms Management Consultancies
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How collaboration technology is shaping the client experience: Professional services & accountancy analysis
How do you store work documents?
Network drive
Company cloud file sharing
service
Your local hard drive
On a USB thumb drive
SharePointPersonal cloud file sharing service(eg. Box, Dropbox
Google Drive)
As attachments in email
47%
42%
38%
27% 27%
23% 23%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
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How collaboration technology is shaping the client experience: Professional services & accountancy analysis
3. Servicing Clients
For many in professional services, the technology solution
of choice for improving transparency, day-to-day
engagement with clients, and the practical two-way
sharing of documents is a client portal. Indeed, their
perceived value to client relationships is clear, with
92% agreement among respondents.
Do you see value in having a secure, client portal that can be used to gather client documentation, manage conversations and tasks and deliver documents back to the client?
But regardless of the investment, sharing of
documents between client and firm (in both
directions) is typically still email-driven
(75% client-to-consultant; 71% in reverse).
How are documents shared between you and your clients?(Respondents asked to selected top three)
How is collaboration technology being used to support client servicing?
4% 4%
92%
Yes
No
Undecided
4% 4%
92%
Yes
No
Undecided
As attachment in email
Client-to-Firm Firm-to-Client
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Upload to your company’s cloud sharing service / client portal
75%
70%
44%
42%
Upload to clients’ own cloud file sharing service / portal
35%
36%
Hardcopy via post
On a USB thumb drive
31%
31%
Upload to a personal cloud sharing service (eg. Box, Dropbox, Google Drive)
28%
22%
22%
16%
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How collaboration technology is shaping the client experience: Professional services & accountancy analysis
The dominance of email attachments above corporate file-
sharing platforms not only suggests a difficulty in breaking
old habits, but also suggests that the heavy learning curve
associated with using some file-sharing platforms is
inhibiting wider adoption.
Given that respondents highlighted data security as crucial in
new business opportunities, it is particularly vexing to see that
22% of firms use personal cloud file-sharing tools to share
files with clients (22% in the other direction). In the case of
personal file-sharing systems, this immediately exposes the
firm to a potential breach in data confidentiality.
So why is this the case? If investments are being made in
client portals for external file sharing and collaboration,
why are employees still risking client confidentiality by using
less secure methods?
Why do you use a personal cloud file sharing service? (select all that apply)
The picture is no better for internal file-sharing and
collaboration. Company-mandated tools are used regularly
by fewer than half of respondents (46%) and they are
regularly being circumvented and often in ways that undermine
security and productivity. Factors including ease-of-use and
mobility are often cited as reasons for circumventing
company-mandated tools.
How do you share digital documents with colleagues? (select all that apply)
Again, the overall preferred method of sharing files
internally is via email (69%) – notorious for creating
document versioning issues. Indeed, 68% confirmed
that within the last six months, they had worked on a
document only to discover it wasn’t the latest version.
This is not only a frustration but, when extrapolated
across a business, a gross drain on productivity.
Other methods of internal file-sharing include over
a quarter (29%) preferring to use a personal file sharing
account, while more people will opt to use a USB
thumb drive (35%) than the company-provided
SharePoint platform (25%).
The company solution for file sharing (including SharePoint if applicable) is not used by the whole team
The company solution for file sharing (including SharePoint if applicable) is too difficult to use
The company solution for file sharing (including SharePoint if applicable) is not permitted by the client
My company doesn’t offer an appropriate alternative, so I use my own
Other
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
53%
29%
22%
18%
2%
As attachments in email
Company cloud file sharing service
On a USB thumb drive
Personal cloud file sharing service (eg Box, Dropbox, Google Drive)
Other
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
69%
46%
35%
29%
2%
SharePoint
25%
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How collaboration technology is shaping the client experience: Professional services & accountancy analysis
The problem with SharePoint
SharePoint remains a common technology in the
professional services industry (62% of organizations use it
in some capacity, rising to 70% in the accountancy sector),
though while 81% claim to use it regularly, there appear to
be dramatic issues with its use and efficiency.
Does your company use SharePoint as a client portal?
So while SharePoint is commonplace, adoption remains
hampered by perceived usability, both for employees
and clients.
These difficulties are then mirrored in its limited use for
internal collaboration. Looking solely at those whose
companies have rolled out SharePoint, only 35% actually
use it for internal sharing and collaboration, with the
majority preferring to use email, other company file-
sharing services and even USB thumb drives.
SharePoint users: How do you typically share documents with colleagues
All
Yes No Unsure
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
62%
34%
4%
Accountancy Firms
70%
25%
5%
Management Consultancies
53%
44%
3%
50%40%30%20%10%
0%
Clients don’t know how to
use it
It takes too long to have IT set up clients in the system
The rest of my team doesn’t use it, so I don’t
It doesn’t look professional
It takes too long to have IT set up new team members to
the system
It’s too complicated
Other
37% 32%26% 21%
16% 16%
5%
Reasons for not using an available SharePoint deployment?(Respondents asked to selected top three)
As attachments in email
Company cloud file sharing service
On a thumb drive
SharePoint
Personal cloud file sharing service (eg Box, Dropbox, Google Drive)
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
69%
46%
38%
35%
Other
3%
34%
11
How collaboration technology is shaping the client experience: Professional services & accountancy analysis
The issue of circumventing broken processes and a lack of
technology usability point to one constant – billable utilization
is being negatively impacted.
Flooded by an ever increasing volume of data and documents,
and an increase in the number of potential locations in which
they can stored as per above, the time taken to find a single
work-related document has become unacceptably high.
Poor naming conventions, version control and search
functionality, as well as information silos across the business,
mean that 24% of respondents are regularly taking more than
five minutes to find and retrieve documents, and 15% are taking
more than 10 minutes. The average is 1 minute 41 seconds
per document spent searching.
On average, how long do you typically take to find a single document? (median: 1 min 41 seconds)
How many documents do you work on during a typical day? (median: 27)
Taking into account the average number of documents
worked on per day and average hourly rates, the cost (in lost
productivity) of poor document management can be calculated.
In the UK, the average number of documents worked on each
day is 25, each taking an average 136 seconds to find. At an
average hourly rate of £204 per hour for the UK respondents,
finding and retrieving documents is costing firms £4,238 per
individual, per month.
In the U.S. respondents work on 26 documents every day
and spend 89 seconds looking for each one. Their average
hourly rate is $265, meaning $3,747 of lost productivity just from
poor document management.
Less than 10 seconds
10-30 seconds
31-60 seconds
1-2 minutes
2-5 minutes
0% 10% 20% 30% 40%
3%
17%
17%
20%
10-30 minutes
12%
5-10 minutes
9%
30 minutes to an hour
3%
19%
The cost of searching for documents is unacceptable
0-10
11-20
21-30
31-50
51-75
0% 10% 20% 30% 40%
12%
26%
26%
17%
101+
4%
76-100
6%
9%
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How collaboration technology is shaping the client experience: Professional services & accountancy analysis
The ubiquity of smartphones and tablets has dramatically
improved the ability of today’s professionals to remain
productive while on the move or working from a remote location.
However, while 93% of respondents use a mobile device in their
daily working lives, usage remains largely contained to basic
email (73%).
While this may correlate to the nature of the respondent’s
role (largely desk / office based with key document-based
activity managed through a work desktop or laptop), further
examination reveals significant deficiencies in the ability to
perform more sophisticated collaborative activities when the
need for remote / field working arises.
What do you use a smartphone or tablet for in your working day? Email
Internet research
Accessing corporate / client documents (beyond via an email attachment)
Scheduling meetings
Sharing documents with team / client (beyond via email response)
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Approving and ‘signing’ documents (beyond via email response)
Setting a task (beyond email instructions)
I don’t use a smartphone / tablet in my working day
Other
73%
37%
34%
33%
32%
25%
24%
7%
2%
The broken promises of enterprise mobility
13
How collaboration technology is shaping the client experience: Professional services & accountancy analysis
How does working remotely impact your ability to do the following?
When working remotely a significant number of respondents
suggested that their ability to perform certain collaborative
activities was significantly hampered, or stopped altogether.
21% felt completely unable to access company documents,
25% unable to share documents and 10% unable to approve
documents. In each of these scenarios, only 37%, 29% and 31%
(respectively) felt no negative impact to their productivity.
The ethos of enterprise mobility is that mobile workers should
not be tethered to a single place of work, or a single device.
Hopping between location and device should allow seamless (and
contextual) access to workflows, tasks and documents.
A lack of suitable mobile applications to support legacy
collaborative platforms, or concerns over security may be
responsible for this restriction on productivity.
Again this suggests a need to review technology candidates and
make selections based on both employee requirements and
security requirements (for example, selecting tools that support
Mobile Device Management and Mobile Application Management to
mitigate the risk of data loss).
Accessing documents (beyond via an email attachment)
It stops me entirely
It restricts my productivity considerably
It restricts my productivity a little
No negative impact
0% 10% 20% 30% 40%
21%
19%
23%
37%
Sharing documents (beyond sending as email attachments)
25%
26%
30%
29%
Approving documents (beyond via email response)
10%
33%
25%
31%
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How collaboration technology is shaping the client experience: Professional services & accountancy analysis
4. Retaining Business
All professional services organizations want to make client engagements more efficient. The more efficient each engagement is,
the more capacity becomes available for growth. However, this growth opportunity is being undermined by avoidable errors and
inadequacies in collaboration processes.
Management consultancies in particular are stymied by the difficulty in extracting information from their clients, while accountants
report a lack of clarity in workflows, approvals and too much duplication of effort – the three probably being strongly connected.
Which of the following would make your client engagements more efficient?(Respondents asked to select top three)
These findings show that the need for improved collaboration is not simply a matter of cost reductions, security, compliance
or wasted investment. A failure to have robust processes in place, supported by a technology platform with a user’s experience
in mind, can have devastating effects on efficiency and team performance.
However, this is not a situation that simply limits growth and the firm’s ambition. These failings can have an equally dramatic impact
on client satisfaction and even retention.
Frustrations when working on client engagements are familiar. However, too often they are created by entirely
inadequate processes surrounding communication and updates, task management and document management. Ironically,
and perhaps more frustratingly, these are often accentuated by the inaccessibility of the platforms put in place.
Where are the failures in client servicing?
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Easier collection of documents
from the client
Clearerapproval process
Clearer document workflows
Clearer project
management
Easier collection of documents
from across the business
Removing duplication
of effort
Greater control over document versions
Better access to subject
matter experts’ input
32%27%
37% 32% 32% 32% 31% 33%28% 30%
28%31%
25% 23%26%26%
32%
19%24% 25% 23%
21%25%
17%
Clearer task-setting
process
19%16%
22%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%3% 3%
Just me
4%
44%
36%
2-5
52%
36%42%
6-10
31%
12%16%
11-15
9%4% 4%
16+
4%
All Accountancy Firms Management Consultancies
15
How collaboration technology is shaping the client experience: Professional services & accountancy analysis
When working on a client engagement, what are your principal frustrations? (Respondents asked to select top three)
What are the principle reasons for missing client deadlines?(Respondents asked to select top three)
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
The client changes the
project requirements
Managing tasks across
the team
Client requires constant updates
Sourcing documents
/ data
Internal approvals take
too long
Client approvals take
too long
Documents are moved / their names are changed
Consolidating feedback and
document versions across
multiple stakeholders
35% 34% 36%31% 31% 31% 31%
35%
26%29% 31%
27% 26%30%
22%
29% 32%25% 26% 27% 25% 24% 24% 23%
Finding experts
internally to assist
16%1�%
14%
Other
0% 1%0%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%3% 3%
Just me
4%
44%
36%
2-5
52%
36%42%
6-10
31%
12%16%
11-15
9%4% 4%
16+
4%
All Accountancy Firms Management Consultancies
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%3% 3%
Just me
4%
44%
36%
2-5
52%
36%42%
6-10
31%
12%16%
11-15
9%4% 4%
16+
4%
All Accountancy Firms Management Consultancies
What professional services firms must understand is that these are not just frustrations felt on their side. They manifest equally
on the client side as they lead to client deadlines being missed. The difficulties in communication over needs and requirements
reappears as a principal source of disappointed clients, while document management appears as a fundamental root cause
of client frustration – whether in terms of file sharing, approval workflows, version controls or editing.
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Waiting on clients to deliver
documents
The client changes the
project requirements
Internal approvals take
too long
Client approvals take too long
Documents are lost
Takes too long to consolidate
feedback internally and
manage document edits / versions
Other
46% 46% 46% 45%42%
49%
35% 36% 35% 35% 36% 34%
22%27%
17%
26%31%
21%
1% 0% 2%
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How collaboration technology is shaping the client experience: Professional services & accountancy analysis
Aside from high or unexpected fees, all of these issues
can be addressed by making improvements to internal and
external collaboration. Misunderstanding the client’s issues
and client management failings stem from the same failing –
not being close enough with the client, which is tackled
through better two-way collaboration and information sharing.
Meanwhile an inability to demonstrate expertise is a symptom
of not being able to mobilize organizational knowledge from
across the business or gain access to input from subject
matter experts – both of which are key frustrations cited
by respondents.
Missed deadlines and work quality issues point to poor
internal workflows and task setting, while the appearance
of data breaches in the reasons for losing clients suggests
that the theoretical dangers of consultants circumventing
secure file-sharing platforms are very real indeed.
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
High fees Failure to understand the issues
Client management
failings
Unexpected fees
Not demonstrating
expertise
Deadlines being missed / projects
being delayed
Poor quality work
Not being transparent
in the engagement
Data breach Other
33%
40%
26%
30%
29%
31%
30%27%
33%28%
31%
24%27% 22%
31%
24%28%
19% 18%
24%
12% 12% 14% 11%
2%1%
3%
27%30%
24%
High fees
AllAccountancy FirmsManagement Consultancies
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Failure to understand the issues
Client management failings
Unexpected fees
Deadlines being missed / projects being delayed
Not demonstrating expertise
Poor quality work
Not being transparent in the engagement
Data breach
30%
27%
33%
28%
31%
24%
27%
22%
31%
24%
28%
19%
18%
24%
12%
12%
14%
11%
27%
30%
24%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
High fees Failure to understand the issues
Client management
failings
Unexpected fees
Not demonstrating
expertise
Deadlines being missed / projects
being delayed
Poor quality work
Not being transparent
in the engagement
Data breach Other
33%
40%
26%
30%
29%
31%
30%27%
33%28%
31%
24%27% 22%
31%
24%28%
19% 18%
24%
12% 12% 14% 11%
2%1%
3%
27%30%
24%
High fees
AllAccountancy FirmsManagement Consultancies
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Failure to understand the issues
Client management failings
Unexpected fees
Deadlines being missed / projects being delayed
Not demonstrating expertise
Poor quality work
Not being transparent in the engagement
Data breach
30%
27%
33%
28%
31%
24%
27%
22%
31%
24%
28%
19%
18%
24%
12%
12%
14%
11%
27%
30%
24%
Unsurprisingly, when left unchecked, these same frustrations
escalate to the point of being mirrored in the top reasons
for losing clients.
What are the top reasons for losing clients? (Respondents asked to select top three)
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How collaboration technology is shaping the client experience: Professional services & accountancy analysis
5. The Future
Professional services is one of the most under-pressure
sectors. Many services are becoming commoditized,
threatened by offshoring and in the case of accounting firms,
even automation. Differentiation becomes vital, not just
among competitors, but also against new threats such as
technology or other service sectors.
This mirrors much of what has come before in this paper.
Exhibiting expertise and value becomes essential in order
to combat these threats, as do efficiency in client servicing
and offering wider services. But the internal impact of
improving these capabilities is that daily tasks are easier
to perform, and that the enterprise IT stack is fit for purpose –
particularly for the growing millennial workforce who expect
usable technology to be deployed as a means of overcoming
simple problems. Indeed, the research shows that the principle
concern for the future is the need to retain staff (45%).
Increased domestic (40%) and global (36%) competition
come second and third.
These three concerns are readily addressed by improved
efficiency in day-to-day workflows and removing all friction
and obstacles in collaboration.
What are your main strategic concerns over the next three-five years? (Respondents asked to select top three)
The future of professional services
Retaining staff
Increased domestic competition
Increased global competition
Attraction of staff
Stagnating fees
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Automation
Regulation
Other
24%
23%
25%
30%
32%
36%
40%
45%
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How collaboration technology is shaping the client experience: Professional services & accountancy analysis
6. Key Learnings
The need for robust mechanisms to support collaboration,
information sharing (internal and external), mobile data
access and security has been recognized, and seemingly
addressed. However the difficult challenge of building on legacy
technology investments, balancing ease-of-use with security,
and enabling a more mobile suite of collaboration tools means
that many solutions to date have been unsuccessful. It has left
workers often discontent with the usability, functionality and
performance of the platforms they are being equipped with.
In such scenarios, the instances of workers finding their own
solutions (shadow IT) to collaboration challenges is high.
On a more strategic level there seems to be a chasm between
the way in which firms believe they can win business (greater
transparency, demonstration of expertise etc.), and their ability
to meet this need once business is won.
Such deviation leads to lost transparency, broken audit trails,
siloed information, duplicated effort and even regulatory non-
compliance. While the latter has its own penalties, the penalty
for the other symptoms is reduced billable utlization,
inefficient client management, and even lost business.
Collaboration technologies have matured significantly in
the last three years. Increased confidence in the cloud has
allowed organizations to look beyond legacy, on-premise
technology investments and to SaaS vendors such as
Huddle as an alternative.
However, successful collaboration remains a challenge that is
solved not simply by throwing technology at it. The technology
has to actively support the user - be usable, user-friendly and
accessible – while also serving the business by being secure,
transparent and mobile. Importantly better collaboration is
often a change management challenge for the business, with
wider education being required to help workers understand
how a piece of technology augments (or replaces) their
existing workflows.
Too often, technology is deployed without recognizing this
need, resulting in poor adoption rates and driving many of the
criticisms uncovered in this research. That’s why tools such
as Huddle come with the support of a world-class Customer
Success team to ensure adoption and ROI metrics are met.
In an industry where individual firms rely on the expertise of their
employees, the satisfaction of their clients and the efficiency
of their teams for success, better collaboration is of strategic
importance and must be at the heart of the business.
huddle.com
Better collaboration is of strategic importance
19
How collaboration technology is shaping the client experience: Professional services & accountancy analysis
7. Appendix
This was an independent market research project conducted
in Q2 2016 by Opinionography on behalf of Huddle. The research
canvassed the attitudes towards collaboration technology, and
its use, across 206 accountancy and professional services firms
in both the US and UK. There was an approximately even split
between firms with sub-500 employees and 500 or more and
the respondents themselves are also evenly split across
upper-mid and senior levels.
Breakdown of respondents
Background and Methodology
UK Management Consultancy and Advisory47
50-500 employees 500+ employees
30 17
Senior Mgmt / Director Senior Partner – Manager
25 22
US Management Consultancy and Advisory56
50-500 employees 500+ employees
36 20
Senior Mgmt / Director Senior Partner – Manager
28 28
UK Accountancy Firms53
50-500 employees 500+ employees
28 25
Senior Mgmt / Director Senior Partner – Manager
31 22
US Accountancy Firms50
50-500 employees 500+ employees
23 27
Senior Mgmt / Director Senior Partner – Manager
22 28
THIS DOCUMENT AND THE INFORMATION IN IT ARE PROVIDED IN CONFIDENCE, AND MAY NOT BE DISCLOSED TO ANY THIRD PART Y OR USED FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE WITHOUT THE E XPRESS WRIT TEN PERMISSION OF HUDDLE. © Huddle June 201620
How collaboration technology is shaping the client experience: Professional services & accountancy analysis
About HuddleHuddle is the cloud collaboration solution that makes it easy
for teams to stay productive and to work securely beyond the
firewall with colleagues, partners and clients.
Trusted by government organizations and the leader in
collaborative technology for the accounting and advisory
market, our clients report measurable improvements to billable
utilization and client satisfaction.
No other solution delivers the security of Huddle while delivering
a user experience that employees and clients love.
Better ResultsFrom client engagements to internal collaboration across teams,
Huddle means you spend less time organizing documents,
managing feedback and searching through email, and more
time delivering exceptional results.
One PlaceCreate secure Huddle workspaces for your teams and clients
in minutes. Huddle pulls together files, tasks and team
communication into one place that’s accessible wherever
you are.
Always SynchronizedIn the office, travelling, or at a client’s site, our mobile and
desktop apps keep you connected to team and client activity
and synchronized to the latest documents and tasks.
• A single tool to manage the collaborative nature of today’s work.
• Sophisticated permissions. Lock workspaces across geographical teams or lines of business.
• Native mobile apps with MDM support for added security.
• Greater visibility for managers who need to oversee activity and track deliverables.
• Robust security assures the integrity of client data.
• All document and user activity is auditable and trackable.
• Check clients have viewed key documents and tasks.
• Infinite roll-back to past document versions.
• Built-in approval workflow.
• Integration with existing Content Management Systems, including Microsoft SharePoint.
• Securely upload and download files without email.
• Cloud-based, allows easy access for audit staff in the field.
• Ability to meet NDA requirements for control and removal of sensitive reference materials.
• Centralized calendar to schedule project activity and manage tasks.
• Fully integrated with Microsoft Office tools (Excel, Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint). Save and open Huddle documents within Microsoft tools, add and review document comments.
For more information, or to request a demo, please visit huddle.com
21
How collaboration technology is shaping the client experience: Professional services & accountancy analysis
Notes
Some space to make notes...
THIS DOCUMENT AND THE INFORMATION IN IT ARE PROVIDED IN CONFIDENCE, AND MAY NOT BE DISCLOSED TO ANY THIRD PART Y OR USED FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE WITHOUT THE E XPRESS WRIT TEN PERMISSION OF HUDDLE. © Huddle June 201622
How collaboration technology is shaping the client experience: Professional services & accountancy analysis
Locations
London2 Leman Street2nd Floor Aldgate TowerLondon, E1 8FA
New York315 W 36th StreetNew York, NY 10018
Washington DC7910 Woodmont Avenue #1250Bethesda, MD 20814
San Francisco835 Howard Street, 3rd FloorSan Francisco, CA 94103
THIS DOCUMENT AND THE INFORMATION IN IT ARE PROVIDED IN CONFIDENCE, AND MAY NOT BE DISCLOSED TO ANY THIRD PART Y OR USED FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN PERMISSION OF HUDDLE.
© Huddle 2016
Ninian Solutions Ltd (trading as Huddle) is registered in England & Wales at 2 Leman Street, 2nd Floor Aldgate Tower, London E1 8FA, UK (company number 057 7 7111) and its U.S subsidiary Huddle Inc, a Delaware Corporation, at 835 Howard Street, San Francisco, CA, U.S.